Do Your Selling Expectations Match Your Customers Needs and Wants?

It's been the rage for at least 2 decades now for sales people to sell consultatively. We don't sell on price, we don't sell on features. We DO build relationships with the key stakeholders in a company and show them how not only our products but our company - our support staff, salespeople, management are all there to get them the best experience possible.


But, what if that's not what they want? What if really they just want your product, your service and that's it? Oh, they'll happily go through the motions of getting to know you. After all, they need to know you're trustworthy and can deliver. But what if you are thinking of the selling relationship as consultative and the customer sees it as transactional?

A transactional sale is considered to be a sale that is based on price, features, and for many a one-time opportunity. A buyer is not looking to extend the relationship beyond what they consider to be the end of the project. Many companies find themselves falling into these catch-22's. They build relationships, complete their project, make recommendations for updating - that never happen. For some clients, the band-aid, the quick fix is all they want. Now, I may cringe at that but how I feel doesn't matter. What matters is what the buyer wants.


When we sell we must put our selves in our buyers' shoes. We must discover what is important to our buyers and sell to that. That doesn't mean we should put away our consultative skills, we simply need to make sure that we understand the needs of the buyer. We need to understand their perspective. In the end, it's the buyer's perspective that counts - not ours.